Justices Tell Fla. Court to Reconsider Murder Case

(CN) – The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a Florida court’s ruling for a former male model sentenced to death for fatally stabbing his friend and an office worker in 2003.

The justices ordered the Florida Supreme Court to reconsider the case of Thomas William Rigterink in light of their ruling last week in Florida v. Powell. The Florida Supreme Court had thrown out Rigterink’s conviction and death sentence for the murders of Allison Sousa and Jeremy Jarvis, citing problems with the Miranda warning read to Rigterink before he confessed to the killings. But the U.S. Supreme Court last Tuesday found Florida’s Miranda warning sufficient, despite a convicted felon’s claim that the wording was misleading. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented from the decision to take up Rigterink’s case. “In my view, the judgment below rested upon an adequate and independent state ground and the Court therefore lacks jurisdiction over this case,” Stevens wrote.